Dirt & Trail Aug2020

arms. Even though the suspension
is quite firm, even with two up, the
same can be said for the feedback
from the chassis and suspension
through the foot-pegs and your
butt on the seat.
I immediately felt as though
I was fused or merged into and
was part of the big DL’s DNA
and operating systems. So much
so that I was warping along the
freeways at speeds that were just
silly and irresponsible, but the
new V-Strom never gave me any
reason for concern. Not a head
shake around 200kmh plus, no
instability in high speed bends and
corners, no “Oh my … goodness”
moments under hard braking
or anything. In fact, the engine
braking out of the big V-Twin is
good enough to negate braking in
a lot of situations, just roll off the
gas and you will scrub off enough
speed to safely negotiate most
traffic occurrences.
And if you do need the brakes
the ABS works brilliantly but still
leaves you feeling like you are in
control.
The low down torque and power
delivery are equally confidence
inspiring to the point that I was
taking the tiniest gaps to overtake
slower moving traffic, drop down
one or two clicks on the 6 speed
gearbox and bang on the gas
and she smoothly and quickly
accelerates past any other traffic.
The first few times I felt my wife
tense up behind me but then she
relaxed in the confidence that
the bike was more than able to
keep me and my dumb ass overly
opportunistic riding style out
of trouble. And while the 1050
configuration is significantly more
torquey and fun to use, it is still
smooth and delivers great big
gobs of predictable power on
demand.
I say predictable because some
of these new adventure super
bikes are so powerful that they
try snap your shoulders out of
their sockets when you get on
the gas too quickly. This can be
intimidating.
The 1050 is plenty powerful.
I switched the traction control
off and spent the rest of my ride
lighting up the back wheel through
every patch of dirt I could on
the road and the acceleration,
although smooth it is very, very
quick and will get you into trouble
if you disrespect it.
My thoughts:
This is a proper adventure touring
bike, equally at home in the dirt
as it is on the tar (“Ahhh!” I hear
you say, “but you didn’t ride it in
the dirt!” Yes I did say that, but our
Kyle did and he is an exceptionally
good off road rider on anything)
and ‘touring’ is the operational
92 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020